Archive for the category “Community Knowledge”

In the spirit of increasing community resilience White Hawk Ecovillage is hosting the “Greater Ithaca Skill Share” on Sunday, Nov. 18th!

The event is free and activities for children will be available and supported.

It will be semi-structured and will offer a morning session of predetermined skills and an open-space afternoon session to let our community members share a skill they love. So come prepared to learn and if you’ve got a skill to share come prepared to teach!

If you do come please make sure to bring:
– weather appropriate clothing (some activities will be outdoors)
– a water bottle
– a dish to pass
– eating ware and utensils
– cloth or clothing of natural fabric to dye (if you’re interested)
– a skill to share, if you’re feeling inspired

There is a hope to make this a recurrent event (seasonally, semi-annually or annually) and if you’re interested in seeing some other skills represented that weren’t or want to help organize future Skill Share events we’ll be gathering names and ideas for the future.

Please feel free the forward on the poster to other friends, family and listservs, there are paper copies posted around Ithaca, Danby, and Brooktondale/Caroline, also our website is updated with the event

We hope to see you for all or part of the day and if not, sometime soon down the road!

On Saturday, November 19th, 2-4pm, join us at the Worker’s Center for an open house / Ithaca Freeskool class all about Share Tompkins!

Share Tompkins (a local mutual aid network formed in May 2009) wants to share what we’ve learned so far! Come talk with us about free local resources, how to trade goods and services equitably, and how bartering can help us save money and make connections.

For the entry fee, we are accepting Ithaca Hours at twice their standard equivalence (typically $10 = 1 Hour), so bring your Hours!
The entry fee (to cover food & space) is:
$5 or a quarter Hour for SEEN members
$10 or a half Hour for non-members

Come learn about how new technologies are reviving traditional localized economies. Learn how you can leverage these systems for personal growth or to bolster your business.

The panel will be followed by a Community Market that draws from all four innovations and welcomes your own creative input. Let’s co-create a marketplace that builds community, enriches our lives, and strengthens the local economy.

SEEN members are also invited to table at the event and sell goods and services for which they accept Ithaca Hours. If you are a SEEN member interested in tabling, reserve your spot by emailing info@TheSEEN.org.

About The SEEN
The Sustainable Enterprise & Entrepreneur Network (The SEEN) is a growing community of businesses, organizations, and individuals working together to achieve ecological, social, and financial success. Members of The SEEN bring a Triple Bottom Line perspective to the Finger Lakes regional marketplace. Their commitment to sustainable practices helps them lower risk, increase customer loyalty, and generate sustainable profitability for their businesses. They contribute to the broader community by building a strong and resilient local economy and helping to safeguard our shared future.

“Shareable is a nonprofit online magazine that tells the story of sharing. We cover the people, places, and projects bringing a shareable world to life. And we share how-tos so you can make a shareable world real in your life.”

Freeskool organizer (and Share Tompkins regular) Lily Gershon wrote a great article about Ithaca Freeskool for the site called “How to Share an Education, ” featuring photos and a video by Shira Golding. You can read the whole article and here’s an excerpt:

You’re in the park surrounded by swaying willows, or maybe knee deep in goldenrod in someone’s backyard, or sunk into the couch in a small apartment on Cayuga Street.

Usually, one way or another, a circle is formed. What are you doing here with a professor from Maine, a few pink-haired chatty teenagers from town, a local diesel mechanic, and a retired couple who brought cookies? You’re here to learn how to weave baskets out of the long limbs of willow trees. You’re discussing how Thor got along with the giants in Norse Mythology. You are about to plant the first herb in your medicinal garden. You’ve been hearing about natural gas drilling, but want to get more information. Any one of these people might be your teacher today.

In Ithaca, New York, the Ithaca Freeskool offers you an alternative to traditional education. With classes like Mushroom Hunting, Bike Repair, Know Your Rights with Debtors, and D.I.Y. Movie Making, it’s a refreshing variety of completely free classes for people of all ages. Started only a few years ago and run entirely by volunteers, the Freeskool gives the community an opportunity to share their skills and knowledge.

OK and very big hello from Malvern in the UK, I’m Andy and I’ve been very inspired by your local community group ( I’ve even quoted it in my dissertation) and have taken a great deal of inspiration from your site in setting up my own similar project where I live. The difference is mine is an experiment which although part of a degree course is still something I’m very much into. It’s based on just one small street where I live and seeing if a sense of community and neighbourly interaction can’t be given a boost. It’s a friendly enough place but nowadays people tend to keep themselves to themselves and it like were all afraid to mix for some strange reason.

And so the idea is to foster and grow a sense of community spirit , it’s only a little tiny thing in this big old world but I’m hoping it grows, point is I wanted to thank you for the inspirational site and things you get up to out there in Share Tompkins land.

It would be lovely to hear from someone as getting this community going is a bit like getting blood from a stone…Funny lot the English I think I’m an aberration from the norm!!

We’ll be doing a quick talk about Share Tompkins at this cool event Thursday night:

IGNITE ITHACA is a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd. Run by local volunteers who are connected through the global IGNITE network, IGNITE is a force for raising the collective IQ and building connections. Via streaming and archived videos of local talks, local Ignites share all that knowledge and passion with the world.

IGNITE ITHACA #1 will take place on
Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 7pm at Pixel Lounge in Collegetown
This event is 21+RSVP on Facebook

Shareable, a website that “tells the story of sharing,” invited us to write a how-to article for their site and we seized the opportunity in the hopes of inspiring similar efforts in other communities.

The New York Times tells us this week that 1 in 8 Americans (and 1 in 4 children) is on food stamps. Let’s just let that sink in for a second. That’s a lot of people who need food. That’s us, that’s our neighbors – not just statistics.

Some of us are so hungry that, even if it shames us (though it’s this author’s opinion that there should be no shame in receiving, just as there is no shame in giving), we are seeking assistance to feed ourselves and our families. Others are in need and haven’t reached out for help, trying to make do on their own and suffering.

And yet, others of us are worried that hungry folks are leeching off the system, that they aren’t working hard enough, that they should be shamed into getting off the assistance they need so much. And we’re throwing away food, instead of giving it to those who are going without.

Despite this lingering us-them shame game, the fact that the media is having this conversation, and that people are signing up for assistance in record numbers, could just mean that America is learning to share. Maybe we’re finally discovering together that we have enough food, and that no one should go hungry, and that we can solve this problem – we just have to act like helpful neighbors, not spiteful enemies.

As these articles show, any of us can go hungry and need help. It’ll serve us all better if we can remember that and treat others as we would like to be treated. My mom taught me that (and how to share) when I was a little kid. If little kids can obey the golden rule, and share their toys, adults should be setting a good example and doing the same with food.

What are your thoughts about sharing food? Have you seen hunger in Tompkins County? Have you or people you know gone hungry? Have you helped out at Loaves and Fishes, or participated in food reclamation / waste reduction? How can our community ensure that no one goes hungry – how can we share better? Please leave a comment below.

Habitat is a hand-up, not a hand-out for low-income families in need of an affordable, decent home. Partner families commit 500 hours of “sweat equity” working on their own home, the homes of others, and attaining skills needed for self-sufficiency and responsible homeownership. Families also repay a modest no-profit, no-interest loan with affordable monthly payments. Payments go into a revolving fund to build homes for more families in Tompkins and Cortland Counties. (Read more)

They’re looking for volunteers right now, if anyone out there wants to help create affordable housing in a truly hands-on way. Has anyone reading this had an experience working with Habitat for Humanity, building homes cooperatively, barnraising, or the like? Please post a comment!